130th Chapter Meeting Recap

"Individual commitment to a group effort--that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work”

- Vince Lombardi

Kanagavelu Ganesan, Sergeant-At-Arms of the evening, began the 130^th Chapter Meeting by asking everyone how we contribute to saving the environment. While most shared that they use recycled bags while grocery shopping, bring our own bottles, cups etc., there was one unique response that intrigued me. Lucas shared that he would clean and collate Styrofoam boxes after using them, and eventually send them to one of the recycling companies in Hong Kong to do the job. And I thought the extent to which Lucas has gone to, deserves praise and commendation, and will encourage more people to contribute in saving the environment.

Next on the list, we have the Language Evaluator, Zulhafni Zulkeflee, introducing the word of the day ‘obfuscate’. Then, we went on to the five prepared speeches by Andy Ang, Wee Chee Sian, Rama Krishna, Helena Lim and Robert Chen respectively. Andy shared with us the magical recipe (healthy real food) of losing weight. Chee Sian took us back in time and told about history of his hometown. Rama Krishna spoke about how he started reading novels and how that became one of his favorite hobby now. Helena shared about different types of Diabetes. Robert, guest from NUSS Toastmasters Club, tried to sell a toaster! It was a wonderful presentation on sales technique.  

After short refreshment break (Thanks to Jenny for Yummy corn and boiled potatoes!!), the evaluation session started with Jeff Lin, Zulhafni Zulkeflee, Valliappan Selvamani, Hu Richen and finally, Jenny Au. And If have successfully reached this point, and read my “detailed report on the evaluation session” I probably have fulfilled my goal of explaining the word of the day, ‘obfuscate’.

Yes, I meant to confuse the readers in my previous paragraph with the sole reason to explain ‘obfuscate’. The meaning of this word is to make something less clear and harder to understand, especially with an intention. By doing so, I hope readers are able to remember the meaning of this word through experiential learning. However, if you are not bewildered by the brief report in the third paragraph, please pardon me for my obfuscating attempt.

Nevertheless, let me take you through the snippets of last major segment of the Chapter Meeting the Table Topics. Lucas Lui, the Table Topic Master, introduced a refreshing theme on how we would react in the case of an (extreme) emergency. An example of a question is: “Given a situation where you are in the lift with two other passengers descending from the 40^th floor. Halfway through the journey, the lift plunges down in high speed, what will you do?” Even though the nature of these questions tends to instigate a type of answer, the questions still stimulate our brain to think of how we ought to respond in such absurd situations.

Certainly, the evening would not have been possible if not for the coordination and communication between the President, the Executive Committee and some committed members. For instance, the intended member who volunteered to be the Toastmaster of the Day fell sick the last minute and could not make it for the meeting. However, Muthu Ganesh immediately volunteered himself to take up this role at the eleventh hour and even did a great job in spicing up the session for the guests and members. 

All our chapter meetings make me feel:

Individual commitment to a group effort--that is what makes 
our Anchorvale Toastmasters Club Work.

-by Zhaomin Wang